


Twist of Fate

by lucky_midnight



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Trauma, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Not Beta Read, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:27:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26297863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucky_midnight/pseuds/lucky_midnight
Summary: Niravese has spent her whole life hating the world. She's content to stay in the background and watch everyone else tear themselves apart. What's a cynical Dunmer supposed to do when she learns that she's a legendary hero prophesized to save Skyrim?
Relationships: Bishop (Elder Scrolls)/Original Character(s), Bishop (Elder Scrolls)/Original Female Character(s), Bishop/Dovahkiin | Dragonborn, Bishop/Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first time posting on this site, please bear with me as I try to figure it out. This probably won't get updated really regularly seeing as I'm kind of just writing for myself. I also am not an expert in lore so if something doesn't add up you can feel free to comment about it but also keep in mind that this will not follow the plot of the game exactly. In other words, I will be taking some creative liberties as I see fit. (PS this is probably really grammatically incorrect, just squint and everything will be okay.)

It was starting to get cold again. Well, colder was the right term. It was always cold in Windhelm and Niravese was never dressed well enough to handle it. Her thin dress and tattered cloak provided little protection against the biting wind and perpetual snow that fell this time of year. So, more often than not she found herself hanging around the market, the blacksmith’s forge kept that area warmer than the Gray Quarter. 

Niravese wasn’t dumb. She caught the way the Nords looked at her. The way their hateful eyes dared her to come any closer. The guards always patrolled a little more on the days she was brave enough to go anywhere near there. Sometimes, when the gnawing hunger in her belly was almost too much, she would imagine herself walking up to one of those stands and buying the bread that always smelled so good. Then, she would look at the color of her hands and know that she would sooner starve to death than be welcome to buy bread in this gods-forsaken city.


	2. The Beginning of the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niravese finds herself in a hopeless situation.

The breeze rustled the leaves in the tree Niravese was crouched in. She was on her way back from a mission when she almost stumbled right into an Imperial ambush. This damn war was making it increasingly harder to do her job. She watched as a small band of soldiers walked right under her hiding position, they were talking about something in low voices. Niravese almost stopped breathing when she heard something about Ulfric Stormcloak being captured. Did the Imperials finally catch him? Was this stupid civil war about to be over? 

Niravese shifted slightly, trying to hear the rest of the conversation. She shifted her weight onto one foot and quietly dropped onto the branch below her. Just as she was about to put her full weight down, the branch snapped and she fell down. Hard. Right in the middle of the soldiers. They were on her in an instant. 

“She’s a Stormcloak spy!” One of them cried. 

“Idiot! Why would the Stormcloaks have a gray-skinned spy?” Scolded another. 

“Shut it, both of you. Regardless if she’s a spy or not, she overheard our plans. She goes in the carts with the others.” The third commanded. 

The first soldier pulled Niravese up harshly and twisted her arm behind her back. She cried out. Struggling to get free from his grasp. She kicked her legs wildly and thrashed. 

“I’m not a spy. Please! Let me go.” She pleaded. It was hopeless of course. Once the Imperials had made up their minds, you couldn’t change it. 

“Stop it, bitch.” The second one growled before hitting Niravese with the hilt of his sword and knocking her unconscious.

\---

The dull aching in her skull was the first thing Niravese noticed as her consciousness returned to her. The second, the gentle rocking and creaking that only came from the back of a carriage. She slowly opened her eyes, squinting in the soft light of the morning. Her entire body ached. Right. She had fallen out of a tree and then been hit over the head with the hilt of a sword, no wonder she didn’t feel like a spring chicken. 

Niravese shifted, opening her eyes fully and straightening from her slouched position. She was sitting across from a blond Nord in Stormcloak armor. Great. 

“Hey, you. You’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border.” He started. No, she wasn’t trying to cross the border, but before she could say so, he was speaking again. “Walked right into that Imperial ambush. Same as us, and that thief over there.” He gestured with bound hands to a dirty and emaciated man sitting next to him. 

The man scoffed. “Damn you Stormcloaks, Skyrim was fine until you came along. Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn’t been looking for you, I could’ve stolen that horse and been halfway to Hammerfell.” He turned to Niravese and looked her up and down before settling on her face. “You there. You and me. We shouldn’t be here. It’s these Stormcloaks the Empire wants.”

Niravese rolled her eyes and looked down at her bound hands. There was no use complaining about it now. She was here and no amounting of whining was going to get the Imperials to release her. 

“What’s wrong with him?” The thief asked. 

“Watch your tongue! You’re speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King.” The blond shouted incredulously. 

It was at that moment Niravese noticed the fourth man in the cart. He was sitting to her right, dressed in fine clothing and a gag tied securely around his mouth. He looked back at her. Deep-set blue eyes boring into her red ones. Niravese shivered. The thief was crying at this point, rambling about his impending doom. 

“What village are you from horse-thief?” The blond asked. 

“Why do you care?” He sniveled. 

“A Nord’s last thoughts should be of home.” The blond said. Niravese thought that this guy would be a real charmer at parties. 

“Rorikstead. I’m from Rorikstead.” The thief sighed. 

Niravese had been watching the city draw closer as the two men talked, it was Helgen. She’d only been here a few times and never for more than a night. There wasn’t much business to be had in a small town like this. At least not her kind of business. 

“I bet you’re thinking of the ash lands of Solsthiem.” The blond nudged Niravese’s leg with his foot. She scoffed and pulled her legs closer to her. 

“I was born in Windhelm. I’ve never even seen Solsthiem.” She spat. The blond shrugged and turned to watch as the carriage made its way further into the town. 

\---

Eventually, the carriage rolled to a stop in the town square. There were too many Imperial soldiers to count swarming all over the place. Niravese stood and took a few shaky steps to the edge of the cart. A soldier gripped her arm harshly and all but drug her to the ground. She stumbled forward a few steps before turning and glaring at the man. He only spat in disgust and walked off. 

A soldier was standing in front of the group with a piece of parchment and a quill in his hands, reading off names. With each name called, another bound Stormcloak walked in the direction of the headsman’s block placed in the center of the square. 

“Ulfric Stormcloak. Jarl of Windhelm” The man called. Ulfric grunted behind his gag and sauntered off after the others. 

“Ralof of Riverwood. Lokir of Rorikstead.” The man continued. 

“No! I’m not a rebel. You can’t do this!” Lokir, the thief from before, started yelling. In the blink of an eye, he had vanished from beside Niravese and had started running away. He didn’t make it very far before the archers mowed him down. A lead weight settled in the pit of Niravese’s stomach. She really wasn’t going to make it out of this alive. 

“Anyone else feel like running?” A woman dressed in Imperial officer’s armor shouted, coming to stand by the man with the list. The man looked down at the parchment in his hand and then back at Niravese. 

“Wait, you there. Step forward. Who are you?” He asked, motioning you forward. 

“Niravese.” She answered simply. 

“Another refugee? Gods really have abandoned your people, dark elf.” He shook his head. “Captain, what should we do? She’s not on the list.” 

The captain glanced back at Niravese. 

“Forget the list. She goes to the block.” She said, a cruel smile curling at the ends of her lips. Niravese’s stomach twisted.

“By your orders captain.” The man said, scribbling something down. “I’m sorry. We’ll make sure your remains are returned to Morrowind.” He looked at Niravese with something resembling pity. 

“Please don’t.” Niravese whimpered, not even sure that the man had heard her before she was, once again, roughly pulled along. 

As Niravese approached the rest of the prisoners she could hear the General taunting Ulfric. 

“Some here in Helgen call you a hero, but a hero doesn’t use a power like the Voice to murder his king and usurp his throne.” General Tullius stood in front of Ulfric, hands on his hips and a smug smirk plastered on his face. Ulfric glared defiantly back at him. 

“You started this war, plunged Skyrim into chaos, and now the Empire is going to put you down and restore the peace.” General Tullius’ smirk turned into a grin. 

Just as he turned towards the priestess behind him, there was a loud sound ringing from the distant mountains.

“What was that?” The man with the list asked. General Tullius glanced in the direction of the mountains before turning back to the priestess and nodding. 

“It’s nothing. Carry on.” He said sauntering to stand next to the Thalmor agents present. 

“Yes, General Tullius. Give them their last rites.” The female captain shouted. 

The priestess raised her hands to the sky and began. “As we commend your souls to Aetherius, blessings of the Eight Divines upon you, for you are the salt and earth of Nirn, our beloved-” She was cut off by a red-haired Nord walking forward. 

“For the love of Talos, shut up and let’s get this over with.” He walked past the priestess and towards the block where the headsman was waiting. He was pushed roughly to his knees. “My ancestors are smiling at me, Imperials, can you say the same?”

The headsman shoved the Nord’s head down on the block with more force than strictly necessary. Then, the headsman raised his axe above his head and brought it down on the Nord’s neck. The headless body slumped to the side, blood pouring out onto the cobblestone below. Niravese wanted to throw up. It hadn’t quite registered with her that this was her death. This is where her life would come to an end. She could finally see her parents again. 

“Next, the dark elf.” The female captain pointed at Niravese. 

She had barely finished speaking when the same noise from before rang out again. This time it was closer. 

“There it is again. Did you hear it?” Someone called. 

“I said, next prisoner.” The captain jabbed a finger in Niravese’s direction. 

Niravese choked on a cry. If she was going to die here, she would show these bastards no fear. She squared her shoulders, held her head high, and glared at the bitch of the captain as menacingly as she could. Niravese walked calmly over to the headsman’s block. Blood still dripped off the sides. Her arm was grabbed roughly for the third time that day and she was pulled to her knees. 

As Niravese’s head was slammed into the stone block she found herself looking up at the headsman. A clear blue sky and fluffy white clouds were visible behind him. There was a cool breeze, a signal that the end of summer was drawing closer. A perfect day to die. 

Niravese watched as the headsman hefted his axe over his head once more. As he did so an enormous, winged, and black creature landed heavily on the tower behind him. It opened its great maw and roared deafeningly. The force of it knocked Niravese over and sent her tumbling away. Her ears were ringing and her vision blurred. She shook her head and rolled over onto her back. The sky had darkened and giant flaming boulders were now falling from the heavens.


End file.
